#35 Hair Obsession

Women all over the world, regardless of race all share many of the same things. Be it dreams, aspirations, shopping, love, heartache or a love of chocolate but there is an area in which we differ greatly and that is with our hair.

It’s funny how we women of colour, but black women especially are completely obsessed with our hair. There are always discussions about whether you have good hair or not, and if you do - what you do to it! Women are stopped in the street by other women for their hairdressers details, several women are very pro natural hair while others straighten their hair or go for the longest of weaves aka Beyonce style!

So I guess the question is why are we so obsessed? I actually believe it’s just in our nature as well as in our upbringing and culture. Many women can attest to the long weekend routines of getting your hair done – which started way back in childhood where your hair was washed over the sink, combed till you cried, oiled and plated! This same routine then followed us into adulthood where we spend hours in salons with other women waiting to get our hair done while peddlers come in and offer to sell us “3 DVDs for £5” or sitting on a pile of cushions on the floor in some woman’s house usually in the middle of nowhere, with snotty nosed kids running around and the smell of African food in the background - trying to get our braids, cornrows or whatever other style done.

In America there has been quite a bit of interest recently about hair and what is Good Hair? – With Tyra Banks finally displaying her real hair to the world and with Chris Rock deciding to make a film that would answer that very question. He was inspired to make it when his daughter came up to him crying and asked, “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?”

Personally I think that good hair is hair that’s clean, soft and looks, feels and is healthy. I believe that it’s up to you to decide on what you want to do with your hair but whatever you do – please remember that the objective is to look good so if your hair is breaking go to the hairdresser, if your braids are hanging on by a thread –girl please get them taken off and if your weave has moved all the way to the centre of your head – you need major help and only the hair police will do!!

Check out the clip below for Chris Rocks film Good Hair - annoyingly it’s not coming over to the UK! Please also see the link below for an article/audio by the NY Times with different women discussing how they like to wear their hair be it straightened or natural, and their attitude towards it. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/08/27/fashion/20090827-hair-interactive.html It made for a very interesting listen – my favourite has to be Michelle Lewis who likes to wear a weave and her husband didn’t know! Don’t ask me how that happened – but apparently she normally wraps it up before he gets home but one day he walked in and saw the hair on the table. Too funny!!




Xoxo